


Graves

by Rony Ark (D_Morrissey)



Series: Copy Cat Mutant [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, Empathy, Euthanasia, Gen, Guilt, Mercy Killing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-18
Updated: 2012-08-18
Packaged: 2017-11-12 10:12:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/489719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/D_Morrissey/pseuds/Rony%20Ark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She died when he was eight and all she left him was a number and a name: Howard Stark. He was lost and didn't know what to do so he called the man who lived a world away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Graves

**Author's Note:**

> The fiction is based off the idea that Howard either had an affair while married to Maria or met Tony's mother before marrying Maria. Either way Tony is the son of Howard and the other woman. I originally had the idea when I started writing a Natasha and Tony are related fiction, but it turned into angst and guilt.  
> The is my first piece on AO3 and my first official Avengers/Iron Man fiction. A person does not need to have seen Avengers to understand, but it takes place after The Avengers movie.

Tony isn't sure what to do after 27 years. She had been buried in the Stark family plot at the cemetary. Howard had visited the grave almost as much as he went on expeditions looking for Captain Steven Rogers' body. Yet, Tony had never attended the ritual of visiting the grave with his father. Howard always seemed both sad and angry when he turned down the offer each and every time. 

You don't understand. You wouldn't, couldn't.

Tony would say this every time Howard would ask why he always said no, why he would never visit with him.

Make me understand, Howard would retort his eyes clear and free of alcohol because he would never visit when he was drunk and irrational.

I can't, Tony would reply, I won't. I have no one left but you and I cannot lose you like I lost her.

Howard would always wrap his arms around his son's shoulders and close his eyes. It was quiet in the room. Howard had never known how she had died and Tony, the only witness to her death, would never tell. It was in his drunkest of momnets that he would try to pry it from Tony with shouting and grips that were harsh enough to leave bruises, and it was his soberest of moments that he would show what little love he could for his son holding his tongue because he saw the pain and guilt in the child's sweet blue eyes when the topic came up.

Eventually the embrace would end and Howard would head off for the grave that Tony never saw. When the older man left Tony would collapse and sob saing sorry over and over like it was a prayer. Sometimes Howard would listen wishing he could give his own son peace. Sometimes Howard would leave before he heard the first broken sob knowing he could never give his son the forgiveness he sought for.

When Howard and Maria had died in the car crash when Tony was eighteen he'd buried Howard to the left of the grave and Maria had been buried back home in Britain at her family's request. They had expected a fight from Tony but Tony didn't care because she was never his mother.

Of course, the media had found out Tony had buried his father next to some unknown woman and let Maria's body be buried on a whole other continent. There had been speculation but with a tight-lipped, grieving Tony Stark as the only person who even knew who this woman was the media eventually found better stories to follow.

When Tony had buried his father he never once looked at the grave, but the scen had reminded him of the first time he had talked to one Howard Stark.

The number for the man had been in her will when she died. The will said Tony should call because this man would be able to help him now that she was dead. The will never said why Howard Stark could, or would, help him, but Tony did it anyways because he was alone now and Howard Stark was the only person who could save the eight year old.

So he called and it rang.

"Hello, this is Howard Stark."

Tony doesn't reply for a second, "She said you could help me."

"Who? Is this some kind of prank? Who said I could help you?" Tony can hear the anger and he wonders why she thought this man on the phone could help him.

"Anastasia," and Tony hears the shocked gasp and waits and listens as the man works to find words.

"What has happened to her? Is she alright? How do you know her?"

The man is desperate just as Tony had been when Anastasia was dying. 

"She's dead," Tony replies holding back the sobs and tears that hadn't fallen since that day. He waits because he can almost feel this man's pains as he too holds something back from the call.

"How do you..." the man, Howard, trails off unsure if he wants the answer.

Tony closes his eyes and the guilt is back because _he shouldn't have_ , "I'm her son."

There is a pause but it is the shortest one yet and the man's voice is tight and strained, "Where are you? I'll come get you."

"Moscow, Russia," Tony answers.

Tony hears the scratch of the pen, "Who are you?"

"Your father," and the line goes dead.

He meets Howard two days later and Tony has no doubt about the man's words. He is this man's son. There is no doubt in either of them.

Howard ushers Tony along that day preparing for the flight back and that includes bringing Anastasia with to be buried on the family plot for the Stark family in New York.

So when Howard died he is buried next to Anastasia because she was the only woman he truly ever loved and the first woman he'd asked to marry him. ("No," she'd replied, "no, I can't Howard, but I love you more than you'll ever know.")

It isn't in the will to bury him next to the love of his life and Obadiah Stane questions him when Tony wants to arrange his father next a grave with only Anastasia on it. But Tony doesn't answer and just focuses on making sure it is done because it is the least he could when he never told Howard the answers he had so deperately looked for. Answers Tony had and all of the guilt that came with.

So Tony stands over the grave after 27 years. And begs forgiveness with soft keening pleases and wet sorries almost too convoluted to understand in the downpour. It was forgiveness he never need to ask for but forgiveness he needed nonetheless.

_She hurt._

_She was sick._

_Dying._

_In pain._

She asked and he was eight. He _felt_ her pain like it was his own. She asked and he couldn't say no. She was crying and saying her own sorries asking her child do this.

She asked.

_He said yes._

**Author's Note:**

> Up until eight Tony lived in Russia with his mother until she fell ill which was inspired by the whole wanting to make Tony and Natasha related idea. Then he comes to America to live with Howard after that. I aged Tony to be about 35 or so when present takes place.  
> Tony is technically an Empath when I wrote the story at 3 a.m. in the morning. The story can definitely be read as though he is not.


End file.
